The value, in current dollars, of a sum of money to be received in the future describes A payback value.

Present value (PV) is a fundamental concept in finance that establishes the current worth of a future sum of money or stream of cash flows, given a specified rate of return. It operates on the principle of the time value of money, which states that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future due to its potential earning capacity. To calculate the present value, a future amount is "discounted" back to the present using a discount rate, which reflects the risk and opportunity cost. This directly matches the question's description.

A. Payback value refers to the payback period, which is the time required for an investment's cash inflows to equal its initial cost, not its current value.

C. Annuity value pertains to the present or future value of a series of equal, periodic payments, not a single sum of money as specified in the question.

D. Future value is the value of a current asset at a future date based on an assumed growth rate; it is the opposite of present value.

1. Brealey, R. A., Myers, S. C., & Allen, F. (2020). Principles of Corporate Finance (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education. In Chapter 2, "How to Calculate Present Values," the text defines present value as: "The value today of a future cash flow... To calculate present value, we discount the expected cash flow by an appropriate rate of return." (p. 22).

2. MIT OpenCourseWare. (2008). 15.401 Finance Theory I, Fall 2008. Lecture Notes, "Lecture 2: The Time Value of Money." Section 2.1 defines Present Value (PV) as the amount of money you would need to invest today to produce a given future amount. It explicitly states, "PV is the value of a future cash flow in today’s dollars." (p. 2).

3. Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). (2020). Governmental Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting (GAAFR). Appendix D, "Glossary." The glossary defines Present Value as "The value today of a future payment or series of future payments discounted at some appropriate interest rate."